


KH I (Beeyatch)

by Ava_Rose



Series: KINGDOM HEEEEAARTSS...GIVE ME BACK MY HEART [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Dark, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, I'll add more as I go along, I'm trying for a range of things, Lighthearted, No closure this time, Riku loves Kairi, SoKai needs to just kiss, i still suck at tags, me having fun, read the notes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2020-09-01 03:27:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20251405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ava_Rose/pseuds/Ava_Rose
Summary: Andrea wasn't supposed to be on Destiny Islands, but she doesn't really belong anywhere. Even so, she'll follow her little light to the ends of the worlds.Even if she has to destroy her heart.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest. I started this with the simple wish to fix Kingdom Hearts.  
Then I started asking "What if..." and this spawned. I'm using my OCs. I haven't really fixed anything. I still love it, and hope you will too. Also, the summary is way more serious sounding than I plan this to be. 
> 
> FAIR WARNING: There is no logic in Kingdom Hearts land. Don't expect any in my story.

“What are we going to do with those two?” I sighed as Kairi woke my brother from his nap and started laughing with him. Riku just tossed me an irritated look before marching over to the younger members of our tiny group. I snorted as Riku dropped the wood he had been carrying on Sora’s lap before giving Kairi a gentle talking-to. 

Chuckling, I started walking over, enjoying the feeling of my new shoes. I plopped down next to Sora and leaned over to whisper, “He’s so soft on her. She’s gonna end up being a terror someday.”

“Like that’s not just your jealousy talking.” He whispered back, holding back his own laughter.

“You two!” Riku tried to look stern, but failed miserably as the corners of his lips twitched into a smile, “What’s so funny?” 

Seeing him try so hard to keep the order when he was more than ready to play was too much. I broke into a fit of giggles and brought the two younger ones with me. 

“Well, I guess we know who’s building the raft with me today,” Riku sighed, dragging me to my feet when the laughter had mostly subsided. 

“But, I was going to help Kairi find supplies today!” I said, concentrating on not tripping over my feet as he pulled me along.

“Sora can play fetch just as well as you can,” Riku gave me a grin, “You just want the prizes she gives you two.”

“Well, yeah!” I laughed, splashing him when he let me too close to the surf, “Who doesn’t want a free hi-potion?”

“Why do you need a hi-potion?” Riku asked tossing me a rope to help bind the logs together.

“For the days I’m working with you,” I teased. It was true that working with Riku was challenging, but that had more to do with my lack of strength than how hard he pushed me. I still wanted to do my part in this journey, so I did whatever Kairi and Riku asked of me. Same went for Sora. 

Although…

We had been working for an hour, with me stewing the whole time, when I finally got the courage to speak up.

“Riku?” 

“Andrea?” One of his eyebrows was raised in that way that would usually make me laugh.

My mouth opened, but I was too chicken to ask the question that was bothering me right away, “Aren’t we kind of done now?” 

Riku huffed as he glared at our raft. I held back a sigh myself. Honestly, all that was left was gathering the supplies, but the kids would take forever, and Riku wouldn’t be able to stand not helping when we could. I got ready to run around the island looking for coconuts, seagull eggs, and whatever else Kairi had put on her list.

Riku let out another noise before flopping back, “I don’t feel like doing anything else right now.”

I stared for a moment before managing, “_ You _don’t feel like doing anything?”

Riku grinned a little, “I can take a break once in a while, believe it or not.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my friend?” I muttered, scrambling to lie down next to him. I was not one to turn down nap time.

Riku chuckled and moved his arm under my head. He was relaxed, so the muscles in his arms were kind of soft. It was much nicer than the sand anyway.

“Have I been working you guys too hard lately?” Riku asked when I was settled. I twisted to look at his face, where he was frowning at the sky.

“You can’t work us too hard if we don’t let you,” I said gently. As our self-appointed leader, Riku could sometimes take things like this far too seriously.

“That wasn’t the question,” he sighed. I didn’t know what to say. He did push us more than he probably should, but it wasn’t like we were unwilling. He kept quiet too.

If he was going to ask questions like that out of nowhere, then he couldn’t have an issue with me doing it too.

“Am I...holding you three back?” I winced when I realized how that must’ve sounded. The last time I had used that tone of voice was when I had been told I was adopted several years ago. Riku had been the one to comfort me then, and I wished I could ask someone else for support this time, but the other two...weren’t the same.

Riku blinked slowly, then gently pulled me a little closer. It was a small show of the support he was willing to give me. I wished I didn’t rely on it so much.

“Why are you asking that?” Not an accusation, not a judgement, simply calculated curiosity.

It took several minutes and false starts for me to collect my thoughts, “You three are all outgoing people, and friends with everyone. You mesh together well as a group, but manage just fine without each other. I don’t. I’m just fine as long as I’m with one of you guys, I can play the social butterfly, but when you guys aren’t around, I freeze up. Add that to me having no idea what I’m contributing to our friendship, and being an emotionally needy person; I just think you might be better off without me some days.”

Riku was quiet for a bit, refusing to let me budge when I made to get up. Finally he just sighed and said, “Look, you know as well as I do that we all love you and wouldn’t trade you for any world. And, yeah, you get uncomfortable in social situations, but it’s part of who you are. You manage just fine when you need to. I don’t think any of us could’ve charmed Gen into letting us borrow those books from his shop. Yes, you need more time and attention than some others, but you’re also sweet, caring, and aware. You give far more than you take, and you refuse to bend yourself to the whims of others. The really bad ass part is how unapologetic you are about it. For the most part anyway,” He paused to grin at me, knocking our foreheads together, “You know those legends my grandparents like telling? I think you’d be our red mage. Able to mercilessly take out her enemies while fiercely defending her friends. A good combination.” 

I giggled at the description, knowing full well this was his way of distracting me. Still, it was easy to lean back into him, bicker about how our adventures would go in the old days, and forget.

“There’s no way Kairi would be okay hanging back as a white mage! She could be our red mage.”

“Then what’ll you be?”

“I can be a dragoon!” 

As predicted we both cracked up at the image, Riku actually falling back. Neither of us knew how much time had passed by that point, and we both jumped when Kairi cried, “And you called us lazy!”

Sora and her were just rounding the corner, and clearly amused.

“Well, don’t you two look comfy?” Kairi snarked, eyes glimmering with mischief. Riku yanked his arm out from under my head and sat up, always willing to indulge the younger girl.

“Geez did you guys get anything done today?” Sora laughed, bending down to look at the raft, “What _ were _you doing this whole time?” His brown eyebrows waggled suggestively. Or, they attempted to anyway.

“We were talking, you little snot-ball,” I snickered, shoving him off when he got a little too close. Younger brothers, by blood or by oath, tended to be the most annoying things in the world, “And we finished the raft!”

Riku was explaining the same thing to Kairi a few meters away, both of them fighting grins. Sora sighed when he saw, and pulled me up from where I had started to pout.

“You good?” My brother whispered to me while brushing the sand off me. He was such a sweetheart when he tried. I nodded, pushing away the discomfort that came with knowing I was being obvious. I had given up on trying to hide how I feel a while ago.

We trailed the other two to the boats, listening to Riku talk about what it would be like once we got out there, on our own. I had to admit it was a good little speech, but the mood didn’t last very long. 

“Kairi, your dad will kill us both if I let you go with Sora. I promised-”

“That you would be personally responsible for getting me to and from, I got it.” I felt a stab of sympathy for her. It couldn’t be easy to be the mayor’s daughter.

Sora and I knew that it was just a token argument, so we just slid into the rowboat our parents had made for us and set off. They would catch up in their own time.

“Are you really okay?” Sora huffed out about halfway to the main island.

“Yeah,” I said, even more breathless, “On one hand, it sucks that he’ll never see me the way I see him, and he’s only getting more interested in Kairi. On the other, I’m good friends with both of them still, and I know Kairi will never be interested in him.”

Sora’s head had ducked a bit at that last part, and I suddenly felt concerned, “You do know she only has eyes for you, right?”

He stayed quiet while we pulled up to shore and said good-bye to our friends. I had a feeling he was waiting until we wouldn’t have an audience.

“I hate you,” Sora finally told me on our porch, “Now I’m not going to be able to look at her.”

“You’re adorable,” I teased as I opened the door, “Mom, Dad, we’re home!”

“Hello and welcome back! Your dad’s still at work,” Mom called from the kitchen. There was a delicious smell wafting through the house.

“Is that chicken?” I asked, leaning around the doorframe of the kitchen. Sora boldly moved toward the oven.

“Yes, it is,” Mom laughed, “Now get out of here, both of you. I don’t need all the food disappearing before I can get it to the table!”

“That’s all Sora, though,” I whined as she pushed us away.

“_Mmm_.” There was no trust in this household.

“C’mon,” Sora finally yanked me away himself, and I pouted unhappily, “We’ve got to clean our rooms anyway.”

“You didn’t do that before you left?”

“Why do you think we came back so early?” Sora called back even as he picked up the pace. Mom could get scary when she fumed.

“I thought we came back because we were running out of things to do,” I whispered, trying not to laugh when my brother frantically hushed me.

~~~~~

I choked back a sob as I woke up. A nightmare. I wasn’t surprised. It had been a while after all.

Dad told me I’d had night terrors back when I’d first been brought in. He was so relieved when I had stopped screaming every night that I couldn’t bring myself to tell him my terrors were now nightmares. I could never remember them, but I knew they were from before I’d been found from the way my heart hurt. It felt like something had been suddenly ripped away.

My earliest memory was being found, at least according to what everyone else told me. Apparently, Riku’s dad had brought him to the smaller island, and ran into me while toddling around. We were too small to really have a conversation, but I had loved his eyes. When he had held out his hand, it had seemed natural to follow me wherever he lead me. That was the part I remembered best.

There had of course been an uproar among the adults over who could’ve left such a small child by themself like that, but I don’t remember much of that part. It was only years later, during _ the _talk with my parents that I understood what it all meant. I did remember being scared, and an almost constant pain inside. Having Riku nearby made it just a little easier. When I met baby Sora, he made the pain almost disappear.

“Andrea?” Sora’s voice came from where my doorway should be, but I couldn’t see it. I blinked hard and rubbed my eyes, sighing as whatever obscured my vision cleared up. Momentary blindness wasn’t new to me.

“Sorry for waking you up,” I whispered as he made his way over.

“Not your fault,” he responded, sliding in next to me. That was a lie. We both knew it was my nightmares that woke him up, “Want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” I sighed, leaning on his offered shoulder, “I can’t remember what happened, and my heart hurts.”

“Having me here helps, right?” It did. It helped so much I had developed severe separation anxiety when we were younger.

“A bit,” I sighed, staring out the window. There were less stars than there had been a few years ago, I noted dully.

~~~~~

We met up with Riku and Kairi bright and early, despite our sleepless night. Kairi was begging again.

“Can I please ride with Sora today?” Riku was pinching his nose, using the palm of his hand to hide his grin from Kairi.

“How about this,” he said as we got closer, “We’ll compromise. You can ride with Andrea today.”

Kairi paused, pursing her lips, “Alright.”

I blinked a little as Kairi grabbed me and frog-marched us over to the boats, “Okay then.”

Kairi giggled behind me, and I was filled with a sense of dread. All of those times she argued with Riku weren’t about being with Sora. She had been trying to get Riku to use me as a compromise.

“You are a sneaky child,” I whispered to her as I started rowing out. She shrugged, not at all ashamed.

“I wanted to talk to you,” she said, leaving the second pair of oars untouched, “It’s hard to have a serious talk with all of us together.”

The boys had pulled far ahead of us, and were now looking back to see why we were being so slow. I waved them on. They could figure it out themselves.

“What’s up then?” I kept my oars in the water, but didn’t plan on using them unless we really started to drift.

“I-” Kairi paused and shook her hair into her face, “Does Riku seem like he’s changed?”

Ah.

“Riku’s been changing since you came here,” I watched Kairi’s red hair, much brighter than my own, “It’s just taken longer for you to notice because you didn’t know him before.”

“I’ve been here ten years now.”

I watched Kairi’s hands clench in her lap, and suddenly wished I hadn’t said anything. It wasn’t anything she had done, but I knew that wouldn’t stop her from blaming herself for the changes in our friend.

“Kairi,” I said, allowing myself to take the role of stern older sister for a moment, “You did not do anything wrong. Your existence just got him thinking, and what’s happening is entirely in his hands now.”

“He won’t stop fighting with Sora, putting him down and blowing him off. You think that’s not my fault?” Kairi had started quietly, but practically shouted the question at me. I silently thanked whoever was listening that the boys had disappeared off to wherever they went.

I grunted as I pulled my oars back into the boat. Kairi needed a damn hug.

As soon as my arms were around her, she started to cry. I bit my lip to hold back my own tears. Kairi had almost never cried, even as a kid, and realizing how bad she was feeling over all of this was heartbreaking. 

“You can’t help how you feel,” I whispered to her, “Riku’s being unreasonable in his frustration, and it is absolutely not your fault. He is a big boy, responsible for his own actions, and it’s all on him. Got it?”

Kairi started crying harder, and I hoped that meant I had gotten through to her. I rubbed her back while dropping my head on top of hers. Auburn mixed with crimson, and I suddenly wondered what Kairi would look like if her hair was as dark as mine.

“We should get going,” Kairi croaked out. Neither of us moved.

“We should wait until you’re good to go,” I sighed, picking my head up to look at her.

“They’re going to ask questions.”

“We’ve taken forever anyway.”

“Well, I’m good now. Let’s go.” Kairi grabbed a set of oars, her stubborn face on.

“I’ll talk to Riku today,” I said, a final comfort I could offer. She nodded, and I knew that was all I would get from her.

We pulled up to the pier, and I exploded at the sight that awaited us.

“Are you kidding me? We were talking for five minutes!” The boys were sweaty and sandy and bruised, and I was absolutely going to seize the chance to distract them, “How many rounds did you go?”

“Three,” Riku answered, completely unabashed, “I would’ve won them all, but Sora managed to luck out on one.”

Sora shot him a glare that told me today was going to be one of the bad days. I held back a wince.

“Alright then. Sora, you’re going to find a few more things for me today. Riku, make sure the raft is really ready to go. Andrea, you’re on fish duty,” Kairi said quickly, and I felt myself sagging.

“I didn’t bring a net though,” I protested childishly. I hated catching and preparing fish.

“So spear them,” Kairi said simply, walking off. I made a face at her back. Just because I was the only one who had bothered to figure out how…

I could technically spear fish, but I didn’t think I was very good. I was also fairly sure my technique was incorrect, but I was using the ocean, not a river.

I sulked as I pulled the board and spear out of the shack and swam them out. Once I figured I was far enough out, I anchored the board.The slack in the rope would allow the board to float naturally, hopefully keeping the fish from being suspicious. There was a basket attached to one end of the board so I wouldn’t have to swim in and out every time I nabbed a fish. I had built the thing myself, and it seemed to work fine.

I clambered on and got ready to wait in a crouch. I could stay here for a couple of hours before moving locations. Lucky thing I never sunburned. It was a fairly peaceful activity, plenty of time for thinking and reflection. I sometimes even enjoyed it. I just wish I managed to hit the stupid things more than I missed.

I eventually managed to fill the basket, and even got most of the way through cleaning and salting the fish when the boys exploded. There was no yelling or anything, but I could see they were being confrontational from my place by the raft.

Kairi groaned behind me and ran to intervene. I smothered frustration as I followed. 

“That’s a stupid name!” Sora snapped as we got closer.

“Well, what would you name the raft?” Riku wasn’t angry, just condescending.

“Well, um,” Sora looked around, his eyes landing on us, “How about ‘Kairi’?”

The girl in question stopped dead for a moment before clapping her hands together, “How about this? We can hold a race! Who ever wins gets to name the raft, okay?”

I listened to how tight her voice was, and saw the tension she was holding in her shoulders. I wanted to yell at the boys, make them apologize, but they probably couldn’t see what I could, and this would all be forgotten tomorrow. 

The boys had agreed to the race, as expected, and got into position.

“Ready?”

Riku leaned closer to Sora, whispering, “How about this?”

“Set.”

Kairi couldn’t hear when Riku said, “Whoever wins gets to share a paopu fruit with Kairi.”

“Go!”

They went off. 

I could see from the way Sora tried shoving past Riku, and didn’t even look back when the loose section fell, that he was furious. And I knew from experience that an angry Sora was made mistakes. My gut clenched as I watched Sora scramble to the zip-line.

“Are you alright?” Kairi asked behind me. I nodded, even as my heart pounded and my breathing got shallower as Sora used the treetops as stepping stones. Kairi held me anyway, and I leaned into her.

“He’s going to get hurt,” I whimpered, “Why is he being so reckless?”

“It’s going to be fine, Andrea,” Kairi sighed, “He’s not seven anymore.”

Funny how I was the one traumatized by his accident. We’d had an argument, and I had tried to lose him back here when he fell. Our parents were angry at the time, but that was nothing compared to my terror at seeing Sora bleeding and crying. My little light had been hurt, and it was all my fault.

“And Sora is the winner!” Kairi’s happy cheer pulled me out of my head, “The raft will now be named ‘Kairi’!”

Sora was standing there, grinning, and apparently oblivious to my mini-panic attack. He was standing a little closer than normal, though, and I grabbed his hand.

“Whatever,” I heard Riku mutter, “The papou thing was just a joke.”

Sora gave him the dirtiest look I had ever seen from him. Did they really think they were hiding anything from Kairi?

“Riku, let’s spar,” I said, gently shrugging away from the younger ones. I hadn’t been able to think of a better way to talk with him privately, even if it would end painfully for me.

“You looking for another defeat?” Riku snorted, “What about the fish?”

“Sora can handle the rest,” I said. Kairi had already started dragging him away, so I headed for our paopu tree. Riku was definitely suspicious now, but followed without complaint. He spoke when we got were away from younger ears.

“So, what’s up?” He asked, tossing me my sparring weapon. It was basically a spear with a blunted end, made for me by a family friend, same as Riku and Sora’s swords.

“Why does something have to be up?” Stupidly brilliant Riku.

“You hate sparring.” He was looking at me strangely now. I groaned and ran my hand through my hair. I really hated confrontations.

“Let’s fight a bit first,” I finally said. Riku wasn’t happy, but got into position. I lifted my spear in front of me, fully prepared to go flying.

I managed to block his first hit, but the second one slammed into my ribs. I swallowed a grunt and rolled with it, avoiding the jab that followed. I’ve managed to learn that much through the years.

“Good job,” Riku said before flying at me, swiping to throw me off balance before lifting his arms over his head. I let myself fall back, focused on blocking his overhand swing. Riku looked shocked as he fell back, stunned. Apparently he had forgotten I wasn’t Sora. 

I scrambled to my feet, recognizing Riku winding up for a kick. When I went to back away, my foot met empty air. My stomach plummeted. I jerked forward before I could fall, gasping, “Riku, wait!”

He didn’t wait.

I suddenly felt like something else was in charge of my body, a wave of anger like nothing I’d ever felt interrupting my vision for a moment. <strike>_I know he heard me!_</strike> Now I was planting my spear into the soft ground, spinning around it so my feet slammed into Riku’s back as he flew into the water. I froze as I heard a splash, trying to process what I had just done. Had I actually just kicked Riku out of our unofficial ring?

“Andrea? Are you good up there?”

“Yeah, are you okay?” I looked down to see Riku shaking his hair out of his face, bewilderment almost overtaking his delighted grin.

“I’m fine, but…” What was that?

“Can we have that talk now?” I had no idea.

~~~~~

Our talk hadn’t gone well. It had ended with Riku stalking off, saying something about going home early. I was a mess, curled up next to our tree, trying to get his words out of my head.

_ “What are you talking about?” _

_ “I’m pretty sure your feelings are making you see things that aren’t there.” _

_ “Try talking to me when you’re reasonable again.” _

“Andrea?” I jumped a little when Sora spoke before curling tighter, “What happened? Did Riku say something to you?”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed,” I whispered, trying hard to believe it. Riku was our friend, this wasn’t going to be forever. I wasn’t sure I could stand it if we broke over this, “I’ll talk to him again tomorrow.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” Sora sat next to me, gently resting his head against my back, “You know, you shouldn’t let him hurt you like this.”

“I just think I wasn’t gentle enough,” I tried to explain, knowing it sounded pathetic.

Instead of berating me, Sora asked, “What were you talking about?”

“Things.” I didn’t need Sora blaming himself for anything.

“You don’t have to be rude. I was just trying to help.” Sora was pouting again, and I felt terrible. He was trying his best, he just couldn’t give me the help I needed.

“Sorry,” I sighed, “Do you want to go home?” 

“Yeah, Riku and Kairi already left.”

That was probably my fault, but I didn’t say anything as I trailed behind Sora.

~~~~~

“Andrea!” Sora’s voice woke me up instead of a nightmare this time. It probably had something to do with me going to bed as soon as we got home.

“Sora? Is dinner ready yet?” I sat up with a yawn. That was when I saw the panicked look on his face.

“No, but there’s a storm. We’ve got to save the raft!” Before I could process another coherent thought, we were in our boat. Rowing out in turbulent weather was hard, and my muscles felt strained by the time we pulled up to the pier.

“Riku’s here!” I pointed his boat out to Sora as we helped each other out. It was rough going, the wind strong enough to make us stumble as we ran over the beach, “Do you think Kairi’s here too?”

“I’ll look for them!” Sora said, “You go check on the raft!”

I didn’t say anything about how they were capable of taking care of themselves. I was as worried as he was, this storm was definitely no joke. I planned on hurrying back as soon as I could, and hopefully we could all head back together. As I pulled away from Sora, I was struck by the urge to hug him. I squished it, the raft had to be my priority right now. I could hug him when we got back home. 

I ran under the bridge, grateful for the temporary buffer before the wind was killing me again. I took a break in the tunnel, gasping for breath and psyching myself up for the next bit. If the raft wasn’t properly secured, I would have to figure out how to drag it back here with the wind, and was that rain?

I stepped out on the other side and stopped dead. The place was crawling with...things that kept melting into the ground and popping up somewhere else. They would’ve looked cute if it weren’t for the wicked looking claws on the tips of their fingers. I considered backing away, but I had been standing there for a minute, and they hadn’t taken notice of me. Maybe they would just let me pass. 

I inched forward at first, then started jogging when they didn’t do anything more than swing their heads in my direction. They looked like they were looking for something, but whatever it was wasn’t me. It didn’t take me long to get to the little stream, but I found myself stopping short again when I saw nothing beyond. It was like the island stopped existing at that point. As I watched, I saw pieces of ground crumbling up.

“Oh no,” I choked, unable to look away as the stream started to disappear. I finally moved my eyes up and couldn’t hold back the scream that had been building. There was something in the sky, like an angry, evil thunderhead, and it was sucking up the island.

It was destroying our world.

Kairi.

Riku.

_ Sora. _

I turned again, fully intending to sprint back to my brother, but the creatures were behaving differently now. My scream could’ve set them off, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that they were advancing on me, and I got the distinct feeling they would not let me pass as easily as I had before. I crouched down while keeping an eye on the things, feeling for a stick. I just needed to make a path…

My hand closed on something that felt like it could do the job, and I ran at them. I swung the wooden sword I had found, hard, and managed to make a few of them stumble. I ran through the clearing I made. The crowd was much less dense past the initial wave, and I managed to get through the tunnel relatively unhindered. I looked around quickly, and I saw Sora by the paopu tree. Did he have a giant key?

I couldn’t let myself wonder about that, he was being attacked too. I was tired, but it didn’t seem like my feet were touching the ground until I was stopped again under the bridge. 

“Move!” I shrieked. I couldn’t see Sora, I had no idea if our friends were alright, and the world was ending, “You stupid whatever-you-ares!”

I had never considered myself very strong, but I grew concerned as my attacks seemed to do nothing. They weren’t even stepping back any more. I was slowly backed away, and in desperation I tried to kick one of them.

It struck back immediately, slicing a nice gash down the side of my thigh. My breath was caught in my throat as I choked on whatever noise was trying to get out, and I stumbled back several steps. I was nowhere near ready to catch myself when my foot met empty air and I was torn upward without any more warning.

I thrashed, my vision fading as I got closer to the thing in the sky. I barely managed to catch a glimpse of something red, and I screamed my brother’s name one more time before blacking out. 

_ “Sora!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I got it out!  
Okay, I couldn't figure out how to fit Tidus, Selpie, and Waka in here, mostly because Andrea really doesn't have meaningful interactions with them very often. She is friends with them, but isn't quite as close as the other three. I hope that makes sense, and questions about Andrea's life before this are welcome if you aren't sure about something.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I put this in my FF VII story, but I realized other people might not be crazy like me.  
I will not be updating a whole heck of a lot. My overall goal is to update something at least once a month, but I have a lot of projects I'm trying to get going, so that might mean long gaps between updates on an individual story.  
This chapter was brought early by my need to warn all readers of this danger.

Waking up hurt. Not in the, “My body’s been beat to crap, and now I’m awake to feel it,” sort of way, and not the “My throbbing head has decided I’ve slept long enough,” way. No, I was physically fine except for a stiff back and my thigh. The actual waking up hurt, and it took me several minutes of looking at the small waterway I woke up near to figure out why.

“The islands!” I croaked, remembering them crumbling and an ocean of darkness. The brick wall and road around me made it very clear I was nowhere near home. A new worry stabbed my heart, and I gave up thinking about location, “We never found Riku and Kairi! And where’s Sora?”

I stood up a little shakily, but definitely not worse for wear, and began limping around. I would normally ask for help in finding my friends, but the town seemed empty despite its large buildings and bright lights. I picked up the pace when I spotted a large door ahead of me. Maybe this section was meant to be some sort of market section, and it just wasn’t open yet? Before I could get too close, shadows started coalescing into the small creatures from the island. Only, this time it looked like some of them were wearing clothes...Was that armor?

Before I could spend too long staring, my thigh gave a sudden, intense throb. I was reminded that however ridiculous they might look, these things could hurt me, and I had absolutely no way of stopping them.

I was flying for the nearest doorway, scrabbling at the handle before I could even process the fact that it might not be unlocked, and in the building.

_ I don’t think I’ve managed to move that fast in all my years of fighting Riku. _

Both my hands were gripping the doorknob, and I was shaking as I listened to the noises outside. The clanking and the scratching seemed to go on forever before it just...stopped. I waited another eternity before ever so slowly starting to turn the knob. 

“If you open that door, they’re just going to come back again,” a cool voice said. I screamed and whirled, horrified to see three other people in my sudden sanctuary. The man who had spoken looked halfway between amusement and annoyance as a girl bounced her way over to me, speaking at a rapid pace, “Hi, my name is Yuffie and I am the greatest ninja ever! What’s your name? Are you new here? Of course you are, you wouldn’t be walking so cluelessly through the second or third district if you weren’t.” 

“Yuffie,” a woman in the corner gently chided, “You’re scaring her.”

The girl, or Yuffie I supposed, looked a little guilty, and went to the opposite wall with considerably less bounce. I pushed myself against the door as the woman crouched in front of me. I felt weird as she slowly held out a hand, “Hello there, my name is Aerith.”

I let my blue eyes flick up to look at her, then looked away immediately. Aerith was really beautiful, in a way that should make me feel smaller. Instead, I felt pleasantly warm, “My name is Andrea.”

I took her hand, amazed at how soft it was compared to mine. Everything about her was strange and welcoming at the same time.

“It’s alright to be feeling upset. You’re in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people and no idea what’s going on. Not many people would have held up as well as you have.” Her other hand brought my face up to meet her eyes again, “You’re safe now though. We want to help you. Will you let us?”

“Well, it’s not like I can take care of myself,” I said, mesmerized by the deep green of Aerith’s eyes. She smiled helped me stand up before looking at her companions, “She was accompanied by the Keyblade wielder, so he’s probably somewhere in town.”

“Hopefully he’ll have had better luck, and ended up in District One,” Yuffie said, frowning just slightly.

“We should go look for him just in case,” the man concluded, pushing off the wall and stalking toward the door threateningly. I cringed into Aerith momentarily, not wanting to get in his way, before my mind registered what they had said. Worry filled me again as I remembered the weird object I’d seen Sora lugging around.

“This Keyblade, is it a giant key?” The man’s eyes narrowed a little, and I took it as confirmation, “So you’re looking for Sora? What do you want from him?” I shrugged away from Aerith’s hands and stood back in front of the door, protective instincts rearing. 

“We don’t _ want _ anything from him, we _ need _him,” the man said, advancing until we were nearly touching. I glared right back, refusing to be intimidated by a man who could be threatening Sora. Then he grabbed his weapon from the wall beside me.

“What the hell is that?” 

The sword-thing looked very, very deadly. The man didn’t look interested in saying anything further, “Move.”

“No way. Not until you tell me why you need Sora.”

“Andrea,” Aerith was now standing off to the side, “I know you want to protect your brother, but you need to trust us.” My heart twinged at the worried look on her face, but this _ was _my brother they were talking about! I wasn’t going to let these people near him without knowing why they wanted him.

I saw a wave of light originating with Aerith as her voice cried, “Sleep!” and I felt so tired. I started breathing hard, and I stumbled forward, trying to pull myself away when the man held me off the floor to keep me from hitting my head.

“I’m sorry, Andrea!” Aerith sounded so sad and guilty. It hurt.

“Yuffie, do you think you can…” I didn’t get to hear what the man wanted from Yuffie. I was dead asleep.

~~~~~

My second time waking up was even worse than the first. This time someone was yelling and shaking me, and they wouldn’t stop.

“Get off!” I finally managed to get my arms free enough to shove at whoever was trying to die.

“See, told you guys she’s just a really deep sleeper!” Sora’s voice said, sounding far too cheerful. I grunted, and turned on my stomach before I remembered.

“Sora!” I yelled, bolting up to catch him in a bear hug, “Oh, are you alright? Have you seen Kairi or Riku?”

Sora grabbed me back just as tight, with a smile that looked a little strained. He waited until I had run out of breath before reassuring me that, yes, he was fine, no, he had not seen our friends, but he did kind of know what was going on thanks to these people.

“The monsters are called heartless," Sora explained, before pointing to the others, "These are Leon and Yuffie. They bandaged your leg too." 

I glared over at the man by the door from my place on the bed. His name was Leon?

“I never said I was going to hurt him, did I?” Leon was being a jerk, I hated the smirk he had.

“No, you just said you needed something from my brother and grabbed your weird sword thing!” I nearly choked over the last couple of words I was so angry. _<strike>Who did this Leon think he was?</strike>_ Recognizing the feeling in my gut as the same one from my fight with Riku, I started taking measured breaths to calm down. It wasn’t working though, I could feel the frustration building up. Why did everything seem to be against us?

I kicked the blanket off, and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I buried my face in my hands and let out a tiny scream.

“Andrea?” Yuffie had been quiet up to this point, I realized, holding the hand she had placed on my shoulder. Before I could say anything, a heartless manifested behind her.

I screamed, Sora darted forward to destroy it, Leon started giving orders, and Yuffie was dragging me along a street opposite where Sora and Leon were headed. I didn't know where we were going, but there seemed to be very few heartless on our route.

“Hey, I-” I gasped, realizing we must have been running a while for me to be this out of breath. Or I was having some sort of meltdown, whichever, “I want to help them. It can’t be easy for you, having to babysit me while the others are fighting.”

“You’re hurt though.”

“It’s fine, I can barely feel it through the adrenaline, and you guys fixed it up really well,” I pleaded, “This way I can at least be sort of helpful, right?”

Yuffie stopped, gave me a few look-overs, thought a bit, then said, “Alright, but we have got to get you a weapon. How’s your balance?”

“Nothing particularly spectacular, but not atrocious,” I said. Why would she need to know about my balance?

“Right then. Keep up, but stay behind me!” With that, Yuffie sprang away, destroying any Heartless that got in her way. I watched with the faint stirrings of jealousy I felt whenever the boys would spar. Why couldn’t I be as graceful and strong?

We seemed to arrive at our destination, a brightly lit shop with all sorts of things Riku would’ve loved to get his hands on. I quickly shoved that thought to the back of my mind as Yuffie asked the man behind the counter something about old weapons.

“It’s not like you use them anymore!” Yuffie called as the man stormed to the back with a huff. I fretted for a second, afraid she had offended my best chance of being useful. Yuffie laughed and told me the two of them were good friends, and she would never purposely make life difficult for me like that.

“Purposely” being the operative word.

I was distracted from groaning at Yuffie when the man, Cid I would later find out, came up front with a beautiful weapon. Or, I thought it was.

"What is that?" Yuffie sounded a bit disappointed.

"It's a lance, what's it look like?" Cid snapped back, clearly fed up with her, "Now girly, do you know how to use one of these things?"

"I would sometimes go spearfishing at home," I offered lamely. I knew that would be very different from what I was expected to do.

Cid’s toothpick wobbled for a moment, “Look, you hit with this sharp bit, you defend with this bit, and hope it doesn’t break.” I took it from him with no small amount of trepidation while Yuffie ragged on Cid about giving me a better weapon. They were really just going to throw me to the wolves?

“Don’t worry,” Yuffie said, putting a small hand on my arm, “I’ll be right there with you.”

I remembered the way Yuffie had cut through Heartless like so much water and relaxed a bit. The grin Yuffie was wearing nearly blinded me when I turned to face her, “Yeah, let’s go.”

“Come back if you survive, and maybe I’ll have something better for you!” Cid called after us. I didn’t bother to acknowledge it. I would be just fine.

~~~~~

Apparently, being right there with me meant standing back and laughing while I struggled.

“Yuffie, a little help please?” I groaned, trying to keep the lance between the heartless and me.

“But how else are you supposed to learn?” Yuffie asked, amusement ruining the picture of innocence she had been going for.

“Could you at least talk me through it?” I shrieked, jumping back as one of the shadows took a swipe at me, “Pretty please?”

“Just whack them. It doesn’t take a whole lot of skill to swing the pointy end at the bad guys.”

I glared at her for a split second before bringing the end of my lance down on the head of a shadow near me. The blade met the thing’s head between the feelers...and bounced.

“Yuffie!”

“Look, it’s dazed! Keep hitting it!”

“Did it do any damage?”

"Now look, you’ve aggravated it!”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s going to attack harder.”

“Agh!”

I proceeded to whale on the poor thing, and grew delighted when it finally poofed away. 

“Yuffie look, I did it!” I laughed and turned to see her killing the last of the other four Heartless.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Yuffie said when she saw my face, “I’ve had way more practice than you.”

I nodded, acknowledging that she was right. I needed more experience. That didn’t stop the disappointment bubbling in my chest.

“C’mon, we gotta catch up with the boys,” Yuffie brushed past me as she talked, eyes looking for any sign of movement.

She dragged me through back ways and over a couple of roofs in an attempt to avoid the worst of the mobs. In the few skirmishes we had, Yuffie would separate one from the others for me to take care of.

“That’s Leon!” I yelled, breaking into a run when I saw him.

Was his weapon spitting fireballs?

“Quit gawking, start whacking!” Yuffie yelled, charging into battle. I ran in behind her, swinging wide.

“Where’s Sora?” I called to Leon, suddenly realizing my brother wasn’t anywhere in the melee.

“Down in the plaza,” Leon grunted, tossing a heartless away with his sword, “But there’s some sort of barrier that kept me from getting through.”

I slammed the butt of the lance into one of the creepies, and made for the edge of the plaza. Screw whatever this barrier was, I wasn’t losing the one person I knew I had in this craziness.

I slammed into the railing, looking for a head of spiky brown hair. What I saw struck me momentarily dumb.

“There’s a dog, a duck, and a bunch of floating pieces of armor down there with my brother!” I screeched when I recovered myself. 

“That’s Goofy, Donald, and a heartless, now pay attention!” Leon yelled from right behind me. He had been covering my back while I had been stupid and staring. 

“Where’s this barrier you were talking about?” I asked, looking for some sort of wall that would keep me from just jumping down there.

“Here!” Leon snapped, slamming his hand against an invisible wall keeping him from reaching the rail my hand had in a death grip. The two of us looked at the offending hand before a nasally, “Look out!” broke us out of our thoughts.

One of the giant, metal boots was headed straight for Sora’s unprotected back. I wasn’t thinking when I jumped down between them, planting my lance into the stone, couldn’t feel anything when my momentum swung me around the handle. I didn’t even realize any time had passed until my foot connected with metal and the boot went flying back into the main body with a bang.

I meant to ask Sora how he was doing, but I fell onto the ground, the lance just barely missing me as it fell over.

“Thanks for that!” Sora called as he ran past, hitting the body with the giant key from the island. 

“That can’t be practical,” I said even as one of the floating parts disappeared. That thing had to be magical, there was no way a big metal pole would be able to do so much damage under normal circumstances. The way Sora whirled around with it made it look as though it weighed nothing.

Once I had caught my breath (and processed what just happened), I jumped back in, ready to help in whatever way I could. Which wasn’t much.

I was the shortest in our group of friends, and had never been too great a jumper, so I was pretty much stuck on boot duty, and sometimes I would get a few hits on the underside of the body. Eventually though, the whole thing collapsed and disintegrated.

I heard Sora groan, and when I looked, he had laid down on the ground and thrown his arms over his eyes. I wanted to laugh, but it also looked like such a fantastic idea. I wanted to know how the others were doing, though, so I resisted the urge to melt into an auburn-haired puddle and looked for them.

“Are you okay?” Yuffie’s voice came from an alley in the corner, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Aerith with the other two. 

I smiled and started to call out, but my reassurances were lost as a Shadow started sneaking up behind them, “Look out!”

Aerith didn’t hesitate, turning and swinging her staff like a bat, sending the Shadow soaring. During the split-second it was floating before it dropped again, Aerith held a hand out, setting the thing on fire.

“Awesome!” I heard Sora laugh behind me as I said, “I wanna do that!”

“Show off,” I saw Leon mutter, but he had a vaguely indulgent smile on his face. Yuffie was just cackling, amused by the whole situation.

“No better than anything I can do,” a grumpy voice said from behind me. I turned and saw the duck glaring at Aerith, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Aw, don’t be like that Donald.” The dog was now trying to comfort his companion.

“Are you okay?” Aerith was smiling at me, but it was hesitant, like I might reject her. I smiled to try and make up for her lack of enthusiasm.

“I’m not mad, you know,” I said, grabbing her hands and holding them, “I might not be entirely happy with you guys, but I do get it. I was being kind of ridiculous, wasn’t I?”

“You just wanted to help your brother,” Aerith protested, but I saw the tension fading from her shoulders, “We should’ve explained better.”

“And now we’re going around in a blame circle while Sora’s doing something stupid behind me, right?”

“Hey, Andrea! Donald and Goofy say they can help us find Kairi and Riku!” Sora cheered, pulling me into his favourite bear hug from behind.

“They can?” I asked, trying to twist out of his grip.

“Yeah, they said they can travel to lots of worlds on their...gooby ship?”

“Gummi ship!” The duck squawked indignantly, waddling his way in front of us, “Now you’d better go rest, we’re leaving tomorrow!”

“You can stay the night with us,” Yuffie said, “We’ll make sure you’ll be ready for your big adventure!”

I grinned, ready to agree, when it felt like my left leg caught on fire. I screamed and collapsed, curling to try and hold the injured limb. 

“Shit!” I could hear Leon berating Yuffie for letting me fight in this condition, and Yuffie trying to defend herself. Sora was trying to ask me something, but all I could do was sob, holding my leg tighter. It hadn’t hurt this badly before!

“Make it stop!” I finally managed to get out in a shriek, “Give me a potion or something!”

Someone was gently saying something, but I didn't want to hear it. I clenched my eyes shut as the pain flared even higher. I let out a low moan, realizing I'd probably wouldn't be getting any sort of relief. Why couldn't they give me anything to make it bearable?

I blacked out to the feeling of Aerith’s hands trying to straighten my leg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Andrea...She shall eventually manage to stumble through an adventure without getting KO-ed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Andrea isn't unconscious at the end...  
Also, INDENTING!

“It’s fine, go,” I laughed as Sora fretted. I was supposed to be seeing him off, but he kept changing his mind about leaving me behind. I could see Donald’s irritation grow while Goofy tried to calm him down, “I’ll be here when you get back, I promise.”

“But will you really be okay by yourself?” Sora’s big blue eyes were worried, searching my face for a reason to put off the adventure just a little longer.

“She’s not going to be alone!” Yuffie called, “We can take care of her, but you’re going to be left behind if you don’t get a move on.”

Indeed, Donald had started trying to shove Goofy past the gate, squawking loudly when his bigger friend refused to move. Sora looked over his shoulder at them, before looking back at me. I smiled at him as warmly as I could. Even if I was terrified of being left with a bunch of almost-strangers, he didn’t need to know. This had been put off long enough. If we were going to find our friends we had to get moving.

Sora had to anyway.

Sora squished me in one of his hugs to whisper, “I’ll be back soon. Please don’t disappear.”

I froze, not really having expected him to sound so scared. By the time my brain had caught up with what was happening, it was too late. Sora was gone.

I wanted to hit myself. Of course Sora was scared I would be gone when he came back. We had lost literally everyone else when we weren’t looking. I should have realized how badly that would affect my brother.

“Hey.” I jumped when a large hand landed on my shoulder. Leon was there, frowning at me, “Quit beating yourself up so we can go get something to eat.”

I scowled, but obediently got up. I had to lean heavily on my brand new crutch, but at least it wasn’t another day of bed rest. My eyebrows twitched as I remembered waking up a few days ago.

_ “What do you mean, ‘Stay in bed.’?” I squawked, already trying to get up despite my leg twinging threateningly, “Just give me one of my hi-potions and I’ll be fine.” _

_ “Your body will heal incorrectly,” Aerith explained, shoving me back onto the pillow, “Potions are meant for immediately after the injury, before you move anything out of place. You’ve moved a heck of a lot out of place,and now you have to heal the old-fashioned way.” _

_ I cast a pleading glance at the door, where Leon was once again leaning against the frame. Aerith was quick to dash my hopes. _

_ “Don’t even try! He’s here to guard you, and he’ll do his job if he knows what’s good for him.” With a last level look at me, Aerith practically marched out of the room. _

“Do you think Aerith is still mad at me?” I asked, a bit out of breath. Leon and Yuffie had slowed down a bit for me, but it was still a lot of effort to keep up.

“She was never mad at you.” Leon said without looking back. Yuffie elbowed him.

“She was just a bit upset,” Yuffie explained when Leon didn’t bother, “She gets easily worried and upset when someone…” Her words trailed off as she tried to best decide how to say what she was thinking.

“When someone lacks as much common sense as you,” Leon finished for her, growing impatient, “Now, are we going to keep gossiping, or are we getting lunch?”

“We’re not gossiping!” I tried to yell. It came out as more of a gasp, and Leon looked even more amused, “Why are you such a jerk?”

“Because it’s funny watching you tire yourself out.” I tried convincing myself it would be better for my health to take the high road and not respond as I walked past the door he was holding open for me, but it was so, so hard. 

Aerith was waiting at the table for us, green eyes sparkling with excitement, “You finally manage to convince him to go?”

“Yup,” I sighed, popping the ‘p’ as I slid into the seat across the table, “Dope almost got left here, though.”

Aerith chuckled, passing me a small salad. I took it with a, “Thank you,” as the other two brought out more food.

“So, how much do understand about your situation right now?” Aerith asked me. I hid a grimace, hoping I would still have an appetite after this.

“Well, this is a different world, right?” After getting confirmation, I continue with a bit more confidence, “And the weapon Sora was using was pretty special. There’s magic beyond just potions and ethers. That’s about all I’ve managed to figure out on my own.” 

I felt sheepish. I had been laid up in bed for days, and it hadn’t even crossed my mind to try and figure out what was going on. 

“That’s fine,” Aerith said, “You seem very accepting of the fact that there are many worlds out there.”

“Well, my friends and I have thought there had to be ever since we were little,” I sit back as the story comes out. I’m sure there was a stupid, fond smile on my face. “One of the friends we’re looking for, Kairi, washed up on shore when we were pretty young. Sora must’ve been five, Riku and I six. Anyways, so this girl washes up on shore with super blurry memories. Like she couldn’t remember where she was from, but she was adamant it wasn’t Destiny Island. None of the adults could figure out where she came from.”

I felt the smile slip off my face, “It was Riku, our other friend, who first figured she had to have come from a different world. Everyone else thought he was being an over imaginative kid, but Sora and I...Sora and I believed him, and we would’ve done whatever it took to help him prove it. He always said it was so we could take Kairi home, but she didn’t really care. He really just wanted to show everyone they were wrong for doubting him.

“I miss them,” I admitted, “We’ve never been this long without each other. Even when one of us was sick, we would sneak past our parents to visit whoever it was.” 

Great, I was going to start crying. I could feel Aerith rubbing my back as I covered my face with a shuddery inhale. Sora and I didn’t know where anyone was, I wasn’t sure what to do without Riku and Kairi there to direct me, and I was being a total burden to these wonderful people. I wanted to do something, but I was just as useless as ever.

“Are you seriously still beating yourself up?” Leon asked me, his voice making me flinch back into my chair, “You have nothing to be ashamed of. It might be okay to be scared, but there is literally nothing you can do about your situation. No reason for you to put yourself down like this.”

“Yeah, and you shouldn’t even be that scared with us around!” Yuffie joined in as sternly as she could manage, “We’ll protect you while you’re learning to protect yourself. Sora’s gonna be just fine, and soon enough you’ll be helping him find your friends. Chin up!”

“You don’t have to be super strong or always smiling,” Aerith whispered, “but you aren’t alone. Sora’s with you, and we want to help even if we’ve only just met you. Take a deep breath and remember that from now on, okay?”

“Okay.” I whispered back, trying to wipe my face as best as I could before looking up, “Sorry for being such a bad guest.”

“Eh, everyone who ends up in Traverse Town ends up with at least a couple of breakdowns. Don’t worry about it.” Yuffie’s smile wasn’t quite as bright for a second, but that was the end of that conversation.

“Here.” Aerith said, slipping me a small bottle. It was a potion.

“But you said-”

“I lied.” Aerith looked pleased with herself as I gaped, “After lunch, we’re going to start working on that whole “protecting yourself” thing.”

“Okay,” I agreed, tossing the bottle up to allow the contents to settle on me as a mist, “Let’s do this.”

~~~~~

Sora was back in just a couple of days, but I was feeling fantastic when I went to greet him. Maybe I could even say giddy?

“Andrea!” Sora cheered, slamming into me with the force of, well, an excited Sora, “How are you? Were you super lonely without me?”

“Obviously,” I laughed, ruffling his hair. “How was your adventure without me?”

“I’m not sure I want to go back to that world.” Sora admitted with a chuckle. We made our way to the cafe as Sora told me about the mean queen, her wimpy soldiers, and the girl named Alice.

“And you’re really sure the queen didn’t do anything to her?” I asked, concerned when he got to the part where she disappeared.

“You should have seen her face,” Sora shook his head with a sigh, “I didn’t even know skin could get that red.”

“Different worlds, different rules I guess.” It still concerned me that a girl could just disappear like that.

“So, are you going to be able to come with me this time around?” Sora asked.

“Yep. I’m all healed and everyone’s been training me.” I giggled, showing Sora my new weapon, “Cid even upgraded me!”

“That’s awesome!” Sora cheered, doing a fist pump that almost knocked him out of his seat, “I’ve got some things to pick up, but tomorrow we really will be ready for our big adventure.”

“Yeah.” I agreed with him, but I still wished the other two were here to help guide us. Could we really find them on our own? “We’ll be ready this time for sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short, but I don't expect myself to write four thousand words for every chapter. Don't worry, action and adventure is on the way. I just have to constantly review the first game.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am alive. This has just been sitting in my Drive for months. I apologize if anyone's been waiting.

I wasn’t ready. Not even a little.

When I first saw the colourful gummi ship, I laughed. It looked ridiculous, like something a kid would build with a set of geometric blocks. I didn’t think it would seriously get us up in the air.

But it had, and now Donald was piloting while Goofy defended us from Heartless ships.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing out the cockpit at a sphere of greenery, “It looks like a jungle.”

“It probably is. That’s what a world can look like,” Goofy said.

“We should go down there,” Sora said suddenly, looking over my shoulder.

“There’s no way the king would be on a world like that!” Donald snapped, “We’re moving on!”

“But Kairi and Riku might be down there!” Sora cried.

“I said no!”

“Give me that!” Sora lunged forward, grabbing at the controls. The ship started shaking as they struggled, and I grabbed my armrests.

“Guys, stop it! We’re going to crash!”

Goofy stood up, looking ready to intervene, when the floor fell out from under us. I couldn’t even scream from panic as the leafy green trees seemed to reach out and catch us as we fell.

~~~~~

This time I woke up with a blinding headache.

“Let’s go to new worlds, they said,” I mutter darkly. “It’ll be fun, they said. Well Riku, Kairi, Sora this is NOT my idea of fun!” I finished by screaming at the treetops above me.

Why was I always unconscious when entering a new world?

“What is this, a tree cave?” I glared at the leaves surrounding me and propped myself against the trunk in the center. This was a humid, green-tinted nightmare.

“Andrea?” Sora’s voice came from the other side of the trunk, “You alright?”

“No Sora, I’m not,” I snapped, not opening my eyes and most definitely not moving my poor head, “We are literally worlds away from home with no idea where our friends are and I have no real idea what’s going on. Then you and Donald had to fight like five year-olds, because he wouldn’t land here for whatever reason. I am sick of this, and I want to go home!”

“Andrea!” Sora’s hands were on my face, and I just knew he had that stupidly stubborn look on his face, “I know this sucks, and I know nobody’s really told you anything, but I need you to calm down and look at me.”

“My head hurts,” I finally grumbled, still refusing to open my eyes, “Do you have any of the potions we got?”

“I have all of them,” Sora said smugly, “I know you thought Donald and Goofy were being wasteful in that first fight.”

I sighed as Sora tossed a potion over me, the mist removing all aches and pain from my body.

“Thank you, Sora,” I said. “That feels so much better.” I stretched and opened my eyes. Then let out a short scream.

“Sora, get away!” I tried to crush myself against the trunk, horrified by the pool of darkness surrounding me. I started hyperventilating as the darkness grew agitated, moving smoothly as an eel.

“Calm down, you’re making it worse!” Sora said, not moving from in front of me, “It hasn’t hurt me or Tarzan, and I don’t think it will.”

“Tarzan?” I whispered, still staring at the darkness.

“Yeah, he helped me earlier and knows where our friends are. I think.”

“Donald and Goofy?” Since when had those two become our friends?

“Kairi and Riku.” That made me sit up, which had the unfortunate effect of letting me see how my skin appeared to be soaking up the darkness without a trace.

I made a half panicked, half despairing noise as Sora tried to comfort me, “Hey, I know how it looks, but I really think you’re going to be fine. Do you want to get out of here?”

I nodded and Sora hauled me up, helping me walk over to a man I hadn’t noticed yet. He simply nodded and pointed to a hole in the trunk. A very dark, deep looking hole.

“We’re jumping in?” I asked.

“We’re jumping in,” Sora confirmed.

~~~~~

“I’m really glad these shoes are new,” I shouted so Sora could hear me, “otherwise this would be way more dangerous than terrifying.”

Sora had spent most of our branch-surfing shouting back little explanations to try and distract me from my fear of heights. I learned that Goofy and Donald had apparently been looking for the Keyblade to help search for their king, and that the Keyblade was supposed to be super special and keep order in the worlds. Supposed to.

I almost fell when Sora also told me that our world had been destroyed by the Heartless and that the same thing was happening in many other worlds.

“Then isn’t it likely,” I started, not wanting either of our hearts to be broken later, “That the other two just didn’t make it?”

“No,” Sora said, “I saw them both, and I know they’re out there. I’m scared for Riku though. When I saw him before the islands were destroyed, he...it was kind of like with you just now. He was surrounded by darkness, but it wasn’t nice like yours. His felt bad.” All he would say about seeing Kairi was that it was “weird.”

Alright then.

When I was seriously starting to worry about the state of my shoes, we spotted the end of the branch. Which, of course, came with its own set of issues.

“Sora, what do we do?” I screamed. He didn’t have time to answer before he was gone, and I followed shortly afterward. My landing was as graceful as usual.

“Are you okay?” Sora giggled as he helped me onto my feet again.

“Fine, fine, thank you for caring.” I sighed as we disengaged. Sometimes being the less athletic one sucked, “So, any idea where are we now?”

“A camp?” Sora looked around, frowning at the clutter, “A really permanent camp?”

“Who knows, then,” I answered myself. I slowly trudged after the jungle man, watching Sora spring around and snatch things he thought would be useful. He looked like a monkey, right at home. Tarzan ducked into one of the tents. I waited for Sora to come back from his foraging.

“Do you really think we can trust this guy?” I asked him, worried this might be some sort of trap.

“What choice do we have?” He asked. I didn’t have an answer to that. We weren’t likely to get far on our own. Sora went in the tent without me, and I took a big breath to quell the tears of frustration. We weren’t dead yet, just a little stuck. I had to believe everything would be alright.

The sight that greeted me as I walked in caused me to stop short.

“Hey there, Andrea!” Goofy greeted me brightly. I tore my eyes away from where Donald and Sora were refusing to look at each other to give him a smile.

“Hi Goofy, glad to see you guys are alright.” Was I disappointed it wasn’t Riku and Kairi? Yes, but it was certainly better than nothing. Sora and I didn’t currently have any way of getting around without them.

“They’re just children. A bunch of clowns, and they won’t be any good for hunting gorillas,” a man wearing stiff-looking clothing commented with a sniff. I moved between Sora and him as smoothly as I could manage when I saw his large gun. Between the mustache, his hooked nose, and disdainful attitude I was getting a very bad feeling about him, and I wasn’t sure if Sora was paying enough attention to be on guard.

“Mr. Clayton! We are studying the gorillas, not hunting them!” I jumped, not having noticed the woman at all. She was dressed far more appropriately for the setting, a loose shirt and skirt letting her move, and I assume work, as freely as needed. I did kind of want to give her a hair tie to stop hers from falling in her face.

The man left the tent with a huff of disgust, leaving the woman looking incredibly frustrated after him. She took a deep breath before turning to us with a smile.

“Well, the more the merrier. Please, do make yourselves at home.” She was directing the words at Goofy and me, clearly understanding that the other two were not in the mood. I tried to smile at her in return, resisting the urge to smack Sora and Donald.

“Well, anyway…” I heard them both start under their breath. I winced in preparation.

“I’m staying.” Sora turned with a confused noise when he heard Donald. Goofy was quick to jump in.

“Sora, Andrea, look what we found.” He held out a colourful, jagged block and I was the one who made a confused noise this time.

“What is that?” I asked, grabbing it. It was springy but very firm. Looking it over in my hand, I was struck with a sudden feeling of loss. I put it away very quickly, blinking away the burning sensation in my eyes.

“It’s called a gummi block.” Goofy informed me, not seeming at all put off by the fact that I was holding on to our party’s stuff.

_ Like the ship? _ I didn’t say it out loud, painfully aware of the woman watching us with curiosity. Sora had warned me that Donald would just about attack me if I let slip about anything, but the duck seemed to understand my silent question, giving me a quick nod.

“Sorry for kind of taking over your space,” Sora said, addressing the woman.

“Oh, don’t worry yourselves about that. Please call me Jane.” She paused before asking, “If you don’t mind telling me, why are you here? I would like to help, if possible.”

“Tarzan brought me when I asked him about our friends, Kairi and Riku,” Sora explained, looking back at the jungle man. He nodded, but I had to wonder if he really knew what we were saying.

“Tarzan is not the best at communicating,” Jane told us as she quickly moved to a corner of the tent. “I may be able to help expedite the process if you’ll help me.”

Sora and I were quick to jump in and help her pull out and set up some fairly old looking equipment. It was intimidating to be trusted not to drop such expensive-looking stuff. Jane followed with a box of slides and she efficiently got the projector working. She started off by asking Tarzan to tell her if he had seen Kairi or Riku in a place shown.

The slides seemed pretty mundane at first, and Tarzan didn’t react at all. Jane started to sound discouraged when a slide made her pause.

“What is this? I don’t remember it ever having been here before…”

The slide showed a terrifying-looking castle. It was crooked and dilapidated without anything else around it, and something about it just...hurt to see. I whimpered as a lump grew in my throat and my eyes started to sting.

“What in the…?” I could hear Sora muttering. I turned to him, seeing that his fist was clenched over his heart, full attention on the image.

“Sora, are you okay?” I asked, horrified when my voice wobbled. What was this picture?

“I’m fine, I think.” Sora told me, slowly tearing his eyes away, “Wait, why are you crying?”

“I don’t know,” I said, trying to scrub away the traitor tears. “Something about this picture pulled on my heartstrings I guess.”

Jane shut the projector off while we were talking, and walked over to apologize after a minute, “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be of much help after all. I do intend to figure out where that slide came from though.”

“Don’t worry too much about it.” I laughed, “It’s good to sometimes have a cry, even if you don’t know why.”

“We’re not any closer to finding the other two though,” Sora sighed, crossing his arms. He looked like he really was about to go digging through the jungle by himself.

“We’ll find them, we just have to be patient,” I said, going for reassuring. It fell almost hilariously flat. Sora gave me a sad little smile and I almost started crying again. This was getting more hopeless by the minute, but I couldn’t even comfort my baby brother.


End file.
